Adaptive record caching for solid state disks

ABSTRACT

A storage controller receives a request that corresponds to an access of a track. A determination is made as to whether the track corresponds to data stored in a solid state disk. Record staging to a cache from the solid state disk is performed, in response to determining that the track corresponds to data stored in the solid state disk, wherein each track is comprised of a plurality of records.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The disclosure relates to a method, system, and article of manufacturefor adaptive record caching for solid state disks.

2. Background

A storage controller may control a plurality of storage devices that mayinclude hard disks, tapes, etc. A cache may also be maintained by thestorage controller, where the cache may comprise a high speed storagethat is accessible more quickly in comparison to certain other storagedevices, such as, hard disks, tapes, etc. However, the total amount ofstorage capacity of the cache may be relatively smaller in comparison tothe storage capacity of certain other storage devices, such as, harddisks, etc., that are controlled by the storage controller.

In certain storage controllers, various anticipatory or adaptive cachingmechanisms may be used to store data in the cache. Certain data that ismore frequently used or data that is likely to be used more frequentlymay be moved to cache in anticipation that the data is likely to beaccessed in the near future. Such types of caching mechanisms may bereferred to as anticipatory or adaptive caching and may be performed byan adaptive caching application maintained in a storage controller. Inresponse to a request for data, if the requested data is not found inthe cache, the storage controller may retrieve the requested data fromthe storage devices that are controlled by the storage controller.

A solid state disk (SSD) may comprise a storage device that uses solidstate memory to store persistent digital data. Solid state disks mayinclude flash memory or memory of other types. Solid state disks may beaccessed much faster in comparison to electromechanically accessed datastorage devices, such as, hard disks.

SUMMARY OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Provided are a method, a system, and a computer program product in whicha storage controller receives a request that corresponds to an access ofa track. A determination is made as to whether the track corresponds todata stored in a solid state disk. Record staging to a cache from thesolid state disk is performed, in response to determining that the trackcorresponds to data stored in the solid state disk, wherein each trackis comprised of a plurality of records.

In further embodiments, a determination is made as to whether the trackcorresponds to data stored in a hard disk. A selection is made amongperforming partial track staging, full track staging and record stagingto the cache from the hard disk, based on a criterion maintained by thestorage controller, in response to determining that the trackcorresponds to data stored in the hard disk. In full track staging anentire track is staged, in partial track staging all sectors startingfrom the start of requested sectors to the end of the track are staged,and in record staging only the requested sectors are staged.

In yet further embodiments, the record staging from the solid state diskis performed when the track has not been accessed relatively recently,and a selection is made at least among performing partial track stagingand performing full track staging when the track has been accessedrelatively recently.

In additional embodiments, a least recently used list is maintained fortracks, wherein each track in the list is numbered sequentially in amonotonically increasing order as each track is accessed in the cacheand then placed in the least recently used list. A determination is madeas to whether a selected track has been used recently based on apredetermined criterion that is based on sequence numbers of tracks inthe least recently used list for tracks, an amount of cache spaceconsumed by those tracks that are stored in the cache, and a thresholdvalue that indicates an amount of storage.

In yet additional embodiments, the record staging is used as a defaultstaging operation for solid state disks that are coupled to the storagecontroller, and partial track staging is used as the default stagingoperation for hard disks that are coupled to the storage controller,wherein in the partial track staging all sectors starting from the startof requested sectors to the end of the track are staged, and in therecord staging only the requested sectors are staged.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Referring now to the drawings in which like reference numbers representcorresponding parts throughout:

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a computing environment thatincludes a storage controller coupled to a plurality of hosts, aplurality of hard disks, and a plurality of solid state disks, inaccordance with certain embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram that shows the logical representationof storage, in accordance with certain embodiments;

FIG. 3 a illustrates a block diagram that shows exemplary stagingoperations, in accordance with certain embodiments;

FIG. 3 b illustrates a block diagram that shows full track staging,partial track staging, and record staging, in accordance with certainembodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram that shows data structures foradaptive caching, in accordance with certain embodiments;

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram that shows operations for adaptivecaching, in accordance with certain embodiments;

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram that shows an exemplary embodimentfor solid state disks, in accordance with certain embodiments;

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart that shows certain operations, inaccordance with certain embodiments;

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart that shows certain operations, inaccordance with certain embodiments; and

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of a computational system that showscertain elements that may be included in the storage controller of FIG.1, in accordance with certain embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, reference is made to the accompanyingdrawings which form a part hereof and which illustrate severalembodiments. It is understood that other embodiments may be utilized andstructural and operational changes may be made.

Adaptive Caching Mechanisms

Adaptive caching mechanisms may be designed for hard disks that arecoupled to a storage controller. In certain embodiments, solid statedevices may also be coupled to a storage controller. However, solidstate disks have different characteristics than hard disks. While solidstate disks may be accessed much faster in comparison to hard disks, theperformance of solid state disks may be much worse with large blocktransfers than with small block transfers. However, adaptive cachingmechanisms that are designed for hard disks may perform large blocktransfers. In certain embodiments in which solid state disks are used,such adaptive caching mechanisms may be modified for improving theperformance of solid state disks.

In certain embodiments, record caching is preferred for solid statedisks in comparison to partial track caching that is preferred for harddisks. Record caching (i.e., the staging or the copying ofrecords/sectors that are requested to the cache) causes relatively smallblock transfers in comparison to partial track caching or for thatmatter full track caching. It should be noted that a track is comprisedof a plurality of records and transferring an entire track or a partialtrack typically causes large block transfer in comparison totransferring selected records.

Additionally, in certain embodiments, if a track of a solid state diskhas not been used recently [i.e., the track is low in a Least RecentlyUsed (LRU) list maintained for the cache] then record caching is used.In certain embodiments, when a track of a solid state disk has been usedrecently (i.e., the track is high in the LRU list maintained for thecache) staging operations from the solid state disk to the cache may beperformed in a similar matter to staging operations from a hard disk tothe cache, by choosing among record staging, partial track staging, orfull track staging.

Therefore, in certain embodiments, adaptive caching applications forhard disks are modified to generate an augmented adaptive cachingapplication that may be used for both hard disks and solid statedevices.

Exemplary Embodiments

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a computing environment 100 thatincludes a storage controller 102 coupled to a plurality of hosts 104 a,104 b, . . . 104 n, a plurality of hard disks 106, and a plurality ofsolid state disks 108, in accordance with certain embodiments.

The storage controller 102 and the hosts 104 a . . . 104 n may compriseany suitable computational device including those presently known in theart, such as, a personal computer, a workstation, a server, a mainframe,a hand held computer, a palm top computer, a telephony device, a networkappliance, a blade computer, a server, etc. The plurality of hard disks106 may comprise any suitable physical hard disks known in the art. Theplurality of solid state disks 108 may comprise any suitable physicalsolid state disks known in the art.

The storage controller 102, the hosts 104 a . . . 104 n, the pluralityof hard disks 106, and the plurality of solid state disks 108 maycommunicate over a network, such as the Internet, a storage areanetwork, a wide area network, a local area network, etc. The pluralityof hard disks 106 may be configured within one or more hard disk drives,and the plurality of solid state disks 108 may be configured within oneor more solid state disk drives.

The storage controller 102 executes an augmented adaptive cachingapplication 110 and controls a cache 112 that is shown within thestorage controller 102. In alternative embodiments, the cache 112 may bepresent outside the storage controller 102.

The augmented adaptive caching application 110 augments the staging ofpartial tracks for hard disks 106 with record caching for solid statedisks 108. In certain embodiments, when a solid state disk track has notbeen used recently, only record caching is used for solid state disks.The application 110 is referred to as an augmented adaptive cachingapplication 110 because adaptive caching applications that are designedfor hard disks may be modified or augmented with additional operationsto create the augmented adaptive caching application 110, such that bothsolid state disks and hard disks can operate efficiently under thecontrol of the storage controller 102.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram 200 that shows the logicalrepresentation of storage 202, in accordance with certain embodiments.

The augmented adaptive caching application 110 may dynamically changethe staging operations used for data. The granularity for the adaptationis a cylinder band 204 which is an arbitrary number of consecutivecylinders 206 a . . . 206 n on a device. In certain embodiments, thenumber of cylinders in a band may be 126. Each band of cylinders maycontain data structures to manage the adaptive caching statisticsassociated with that band.

Each cylinder may include a plurality of tracks, where each track mayinclude a plurality of sectors. For example, cylinder 206 a is shownhaving a plurality of tracks 208 a . . . 208 p, where track 208 a iscomprised of a plurality of sectors 210 a . . . 210 m. A sector is aspecifically sized division of a hard disk drive, solid state disk, orany other type of storage medium. An operating system may refer torecords that correspond to sectors stored on a storage medium.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram 300 that shows exemplary stagingoperations 302, in accordance with certain embodiments. A stagingoperation may copy data from a hard disk or some other storage medium tothe cache 112. The following three staging strategies are supported bythe augmented adaptive caching application 110:

(a) Sector staging (also referred to as record staging or recordcaching) 304: In sector staging only sector(s) required to satisfy acurrent request are staged to the cache 112;(b) Partial track staging 306: In partial track staging, a partial trackis staged from the initial point of access on the track, to the end ofthe track; and(c) Full Track staging 308: In full track staging, irrespective of theaccess point on the track, the entire track staged into the cache 112.

FIG. 3 b illustrates a block diagram 310 that shows full track staging,partial track staging, and record staging, in accordance with certainembodiments. In FIG. 3 b a full track 312 that is comprised of aplurality of sectors 314, 316, 318, 320, 322, 324, 326, 328, 330, 332,334, 336 are shown. A host, such as host 104 a, requests the storagecontroller 102 for the sectors shown as requested sectors 338, where thestart of the requested sectors is indicated via reference numeral 340 inFIG. 3 b. The start of track 342 and the end of track 344 for the fulltrack 312 are also shown. Full track staging is the staging of the fulltrack 312 to the cache 112. Partial track staging 346 is the staging ofsectors from the start of the requested sectors 340 to the end of thetrack 344, to the cache 112. Record staging is the staging of therequested sectors 338 to the cache 112.

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram 400 that shows data structures 402for adaptive caching, in accordance with certain embodiments. Inadaptive caching, in order to determine which staging strategy to usefor a particular request the following counters are maintained via thedata structures 402 for each cylinder band:

1) Miss 404: Incremented if the track is not in cache 112;2) Hit 406: Incremented if the track is in cache 112;3) Front Access (FA) 408: Incremented if the track is in cache and thefirst sector requested precedes the sector that caused the track to bepromoted;4) Back Access (BA) 410: Incremented if the track is in cache and thefirst sector requested follows the sector that caused the track to bepromoted;5) Historical front end access ratio (HFEAR) 412; and6) Historical alternate record access ratio (HARAR) 414.

These counters are updated for each access to a track. Afterapproximately every 128 accesses to a cylinder band the historicalratios are updated and the current staging strategy for the cylinderband is updated.

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram that shows operations 500 foradaptive caching, in accordance with certain embodiments. In FIG. 5, thefollowing historical ratios are calculated (reference numeral 502) asfollows:

new HFEAR=((FA/(Hit+Miss))+HFEAR)/2

new HARAR=(((FA+BA)/(Hit+Miss))+HARAR)/2

The cylinder band staging strategy is to set to stage requested sectors504 only if HARAR is less than 0.10 (reference numeral 506), to stage apartial track 508 if HARAR is greater than or equal to 0.10 and HFEAR isless than 0.05, (reference numeral 510), and to stage a full track(reference numeral 512) if HARAR is greater than or equal to 0.10 andHFEAR is greater than or equal to 0.05 (reference numeral 514).

In certain embodiments the adaptive caching operations shown in FIG. 5may be applied to hard disks. Staging of sector, partial tracks or afull track may be performed in accordance with the computations andconditions shown in FIG. 5. In alternative embodiments, othercalculations and conditions may be used to implement adaptive cachingoperations. In certain embodiments that may implement variations of theadaptive caching operations shown in FIG. 5 for solid state disks and/orhard disks, the operations of staging requested sectors/records shown inblock 504 may be used as a default operation for solid state disks, theoperations of staging partial track shown in block 508 may be used as adefault operation for hard disks, and the operations of staging a fulltrack shown in block 508 is never used as a default operation.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram 600 that shows an exemplaryembodiment 602 for solid state disks 108, in accordance with certainembodiments.

Every track in cache 112 has a global sequence number, where the globalsequence number is a monotonically increasing number. When an exemplarytrack 604 is accessed in the cache 112, the track 604 is assigned thisglobal sequence number and is added 605 to the most recently used end ofa Least Recently Used (LRU) list 606. The global sequence number is thenincremented. Therefore, all tracks in the LRU list 606 have assignedsequence numbers, such that a track 608 at the least recently used endhas the lowest sequence number and a track 610 at the most recently usedend has the highest sequence number.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart 700 that shows certain operations, inaccordance with certain embodiments. The operations shown in FIG. 7correspond to operations performed by the augmented adaptive cachingapplication 110 which may be generated by modifying the adaptive cachingapplications used for adaptive caching in hard disks as shown in FIGS. 3a, 3 b, 4, and 5.

Control starts at block 702 where an LRU list 606 is maintained fortracks. A data structure for a monotonically increasing global sequencenumber is maintained (at block 704). A track is accessed in cache (atblock 706), and the global sequence number is assigned to the accessedtrack as the variable “THISSeq” (at block 708) and then the globalsequence number is incremented (at block 710). The accessed track isadded (at block 712) to the most recently used end of the LRU list 606.

Control proceeds to block 714 in which for solid state disk tracks ifthe position of the track is low in the LRU list 606 (i.e. this accessto the track is independent from the previous access) record caching isperformed. In other words, record caching is used for solid state devicetracks at the low end of LRU list 606. Partial track staging/cachingremains the default for hard disks. Determination of low position isperformed as follows:

If (((MRUseq−THISseq)*Consumed_Cache_Space/(MRUseq−LRUseq))>16 GB or 25%of cache, whichever is greater) then perform record caching,

where:MRUSeq=Sequence Number of track at MRU end of LRU list;LRUSeq=Sequence Number of track at LRU end of LRU list;THISSeq=Sequence number of this track; andConsumed_Cache_Space=This is total amount of cache space consumed bytracks in cache.

Therefore, in FIG. 7, staging of records is used for solid state diskswhen an access is independent of previous accesses, i.e., a track thatis being accessed has not been accessed recently. In such situations, itis preferable to perform small block transfers by stagingsectors/records rather than staging a full or partial track to thecache.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart 800 that shows certain operations, inaccordance with certain embodiments. In certain embodiments, theoperations shown in FIG. 8 may be performed by the augmented adaptivecaching application 110 that is implemented in the storage controller102.

Control starts at block 802 in which a storage controller 102 receives arequest that corresponds to an access of a track. The request may bereceived by the storage controller 102 from one of the hosts 104 a . . .104 n. The request may be for one or more records (corresponding tosectors) that reside in a track.

Control proceeds to block 804, in which the augmented adaptive cachingapplication 110 in the storage controller 102 determines whether thetrack corresponds to data stored in a solid state disk 108. If so, theaugmented adaptive caching application 110 determines (at block 806)whether the track has been accessed relatively recently. Thedetermination as to whether the track has been accessed relativelyrecently may be made in accordance with the operations shown in block714 of FIG. 7 in which it is determined whether the track has a lowsequence number (in which case the has not been accessed relativelyrecently) or a high sequence number (in which case the track has beenaccessed relatively recently).

If at block 806 it is determined that the track has not been accessedrelatively recently, control proceeds to block 808 in which theaugmented adaptive caching application 110 performs record staging tothe cache 112 from the solid state disk 108. It may be noted that eachtrack is comprised of a plurality of records. In solid state disks it ismore efficient to transfer fewer blocks of data at a time. As a result,unless there is an overwhelming likelihood that adjacent records thatare not requested are likely to be used in the near future, it ispreferable to perform record staging to the cache 112 for solid statedisks. Therefore, when a track has not been accessed recently (i.e., thetrack is towards the least recently used end in the LRU list 606) it ispreferable to perform only record caching (i.e., staging of requestedsectors/records only) for solid state disks.

If at block 806 it is determined that the track has been accessedrelatively recently (i.e., the track is towards the most recently usedend in the LRU list 606) then control proceeds to block 810 in which theaugmented adaptive caching application 110 selects among performingpartial track staging, full track staging and record staging to thecache 112 from the solid state disk 108, based on a criterion maintainedby the storage controller 102. In certain embodiments, the criterion toselect whether to perform partial track staging, full track staging orrecord staging may be based on the operations shown in FIG. 5, blocks504, 506, 508, 510, 512, 514 that show when to stage requestedsectors/records 504, when to stage a partial track 508 and when to stagea full track 512. Therefore, the augmented adaptive caching application110 functions in a similar manner for solid state disks and hard diskswhen a track is towards the most recently used end in the LRU list 606in the cache 112.

If at block 804, it is determined that the track does not correspond todata stored in a solid state disk, control proceeds to block 812 where adetermination is made as to whether the track corresponds to data storedin a hard disk 106. If so, the augmented adaptive caching application110 selects (at block 814) among performing partial track staging, fulltrack staging and record staging to the cache 112 from the hard disk106, based on a criterion maintained by the storage controller 102. Incertain embodiments, the criterion to select whether to perform partialtrack staging, full track staging or record staging may be based on theoperations shown in FIG. 5 that show when to stage requestedsectors/records 504, when to stage a partial track 508 and when to stagea full track 512.

If at block 812, a determination is made that the track does notcorrespond to data stored in a hard disk 106, then the process stops (atblock 816). Control also proceeds from blocks 808, 810, and 814 to block816 where the process stops.

Therefore, FIGS. 1-8 illustrate certain embodiments in which staging ofpartial tracks for hard disks is augmented with record caching for solidstate disks, wherein when a solid state disk track not been usedrecently only record caching is used for solid state disks. In may benoted that in full track staging an entire track is staged, in partialtrack staging all sectors starting from the start of requested sectorsto the end of the track are staged, and in record staging only therequested sectors are staged. Certain embodiments provide conditionsunder which partial track staging, record staging, and/or full trackstaging are performed by a storage controller that controls both harddisks and solid state disks.

Additional Embodiment Details

The described operations may be implemented as a method, apparatus orcomputer program product using standard programming and/or engineeringtechniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, or any combinationthereof. Accordingly, aspects of the embodiments may take the form of anentirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (includingfirmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodimentcombining software and hardware aspects that may all generally bereferred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore,aspects of the embodiments may take the form of a computer programproduct embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) havingcomputer readable program code embodied there.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signalmedium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readablestorage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic,magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system,apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Morespecific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readablestorage medium would include the following: an electrical connectionhaving one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, arandom access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber,a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storagedevice, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storagemedium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a programfor use by or in connection with an instruction execution system,apparatus, or device.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmittedusing any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless,wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination ofthe foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of thepresent invention may be written in any combination of one or moreprogramming languages, including an object oriented programming languagesuch as Java*, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional proceduralprogramming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similarprogramming languages. The program code may execute entirely on theuser's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alonesoftware package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remotecomputer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latterscenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computerthrough any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider). Java is a trademark or registered trademark of Oracle and/orits affiliates.

Aspects of the present invention are described below with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer program instructions. These computer program instructions maybe provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, specialpurpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus toproduce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via theprocessor of the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computerreadable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable dataprocessing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instructions whichimplement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer,other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to causea series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, otherprogrammable apparatus or other devices to produce a computerimplemented process such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer or other programmable apparatus provide processes forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram that shows certain elements that maybe included in the storage controller 102 or the hosts 104 a . . . 104n, in accordance with certain embodiments. The system 900 may comprisethe storage controller 102 or the hosts 104 a . . . 104 n, and mayinclude a circuitry 902 that may in certain embodiments include at leasta processor 904. The system 900 may also include a memory 906 (e.g., avolatile memory device), and storage 908. The storage 908 may include anon-volatile memory device (e.g., EEPROM, ROM, PROM, RAM, DRAM, SRAM,flash, firmware, programmable logic, etc.), magnetic disk drive, opticaldisk drive, tape drive, etc. The storage 908 may comprise an internalstorage device, an attached storage device and/or a network accessiblestorage device. The system 900 may include a program logic 910 includingcode 912 that may be loaded into the memory 906 and executed by theprocessor 904 or circuitry 902. In certain embodiments, the programlogic 910 including code 912 may be stored in the storage 908. Incertain other embodiments, the program logic 910 may be implemented inthe circuitry 902. Therefore, while FIG. 9 shows the program logic 910separately from the other elements, the program logic 910 may beimplemented in the memory 906 and/or the circuitry 902.

Certain embodiments may be directed to a method for deploying computinginstruction by a person or automated processing integratingcomputer-readable code into a computing system, wherein the code incombination with the computing system is enabled to perform theoperations of the described embodiments.

The terms “an embodiment”, “embodiment”, “embodiments”, “theembodiment”, “the embodiments”, “one or more embodiments”, “someembodiments”, and “one embodiment” mean “one or more (but not all)embodiments of the present invention(s)” unless expressly specifiedotherwise.

The terms “including”, “comprising”, “having” and variations thereofmean “including but not limited to”, unless expressly specifiedotherwise.

The enumerated listing of items does not imply that any or all of theitems are mutually exclusive, unless expressly specified otherwise.

The terms “a”, “an” and “the” mean “one or more”, unless expresslyspecified otherwise.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be incontinuous communication with each other, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with eachother may communicate directly or indirectly through one or moreintermediaries.

A description of an embodiment with several components in communicationwith each other does not imply that all such components are required. Onthe contrary a variety of optional components are described toillustrate the wide variety of possible embodiments of the presentinvention.

Further, although process steps, method steps, algorithms or the likemay be described in a sequential order, such processes, methods andalgorithms may be configured to work in alternate orders. In otherwords, any sequence or order of steps that may be described does notnecessarily indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in thatorder. The steps of processes described herein may be performed in anyorder practical. Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously.

When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readilyapparent that more than one device/article (whether or not theycooperate) may be used in place of a single device/article. Similarly,where more than one device or article is described herein (whether ornot they cooperate), it will be readily apparent that a singledevice/article may be used in place of the more than one device orarticle or a different number of devices/articles may be used instead ofthe shown number of devices or programs. The functionality and/or thefeatures of a device may be alternatively embodied by one or more otherdevices which are not explicitly described as having suchfunctionality/features. Thus, other embodiments of the present inventionneed not include the device itself.

At least certain operations that may have been illustrated in thefigures show certain events occurring in a certain order. In alternativeembodiments, certain operations may be performed in a different order,modified or removed. Moreover, steps may be added to the above describedlogic and still conform to the described embodiments. Further,operations described herein may occur sequentially or certain operationsmay be processed in parallel. Yet further, operations may be performedby a single processing unit or by distributed processing units.

The foregoing description of various embodiments of the invention hasbeen presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It isnot intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the preciseform disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in lightof the above teaching. It is intended that the scope of the invention belimited not by this detailed description, but rather by the claimsappended hereto. The above specification, examples and data provide acomplete description of the manufacture and use of the composition ofthe invention. Since many embodiments of the invention can be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, theinvention resides in the claims hereinafter appended.

1. A method, comprising: receiving, by a storage controller, a requestthat corresponds to an access of a track; determining whether the trackcorresponds to data stored in a solid state disk; and performing, recordstaging to a cache from the solid state disk, in response to determiningthat the track corresponds to data stored in the solid state disk,wherein each track is comprised of a plurality of records.
 2. The methodof claim 1, the method further comprising: determining whether the trackcorresponds to data stored in a hard disk; and selecting amongperforming partial track staging, full track staging and record stagingto the cache from the hard disk, based on a criterion maintained by thestorage controller, in response to determining that the trackcorresponds to data stored in the hard disk, wherein in full trackstaging an entire track is staged, in partial track staging all sectorsstarting from the start of requested sectors to the end of the track arestaged, and in record staging only the requested sectors are staged. 3.The method of claim 1, wherein the record staging from the solid statedisk is performed when the track has not been accessed relativelyrecently, and selecting at least among performing partial track stagingand performing full track staging when the track has been accessedrelatively recently.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:maintaining a least recently used list for tracks, wherein each track inthe list is numbered sequentially in a monotonically increasing order aseach track is accessed in the cache and then placed in the leastrecently used list; and determining whether a selected track has beenused recently based on a predetermined criterion that is based onsequence numbers of tracks in the least recently used list for tracks,an amount of cache space consumed by those tracks that are stored in thecache, and a threshold value that indicates an amount of storage.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein: the record staging is used as a defaultstaging operation for solid state disks that are coupled to the storagecontroller; and partial track staging is used as the default stagingoperation for hard disks that are coupled to the storage controller,wherein in the partial track staging all sectors starting from the startof requested sectors to the end of the track are staged, and in therecord staging only the requested sectors are staged. 6-20. (canceled)21. A method for deploying computing infrastructure, comprisingintegrating computer-readable code into a storage controller, whereinthe code in combination with the storage controller performs operations,the operations comprising: receiving, by the storage controller, arequest that corresponds to an access of a track; determining whetherthe track corresponds to data stored in a solid state disk; andperforming, record staging to a cache from the solid state disk, inresponse to determining that the track corresponds to data stored in thesolid state disk, wherein each track is comprised of a plurality ofrecords.
 22. The method for deploying computing infrastructure of claim21, the operations further comprising: determining whether the trackcorresponds to data stored in a hard disk; and selecting amongperforming partial track staging, full track staging and record stagingto the cache from the hard disk, based on a criterion maintained by thestorage controller, in response to determining that the trackcorresponds to data stored in the hard disk, wherein in full trackstaging an entire track is staged, in partial track staging all sectorsstarting from the start of requested sectors to the end of the track arestaged, and in record staging only the requested sectors are staged. 23.The method for deploying computing infrastructure of claim 21, whereinthe record staging from the solid state disk is performed when the trackhas not been accessed relatively recently, and selecting at least amongperforming partial track staging and performing full track staging whenthe track has been accessed relatively recently.
 24. The method fordeploying computing infrastructure of claim 21, the operations furthercomprising: maintaining a least recently used list for tracks, whereineach track in the list is numbered sequentially in a monotonicallyincreasing order as each track is accessed in the cache and then placedin the least recently used list; and determining whether a selectedtrack has been used recently based on a predetermined criterion that isbased on sequence numbers of tracks in the least recently used list fortracks, an amount of cache space consumed by those tracks that arestored in the cache, and a threshold value that indicates an amount ofstorage.
 25. The method for deploying computing infrastructure of claim21, wherein: the record staging is used as a default staging operationfor solid state disks that are coupled to the storage controller; andpartial track staging is used as the default staging operation for harddisks that are coupled to the storage controller, wherein in the partialtrack staging all sectors starting from the start of requested sectorsto the end of the track are staged, and in the record staging only therequested sectors are staged.